Business of Media
Facebook legal case ‘divorced from reality’
The Full Federal Court has dismissed Facebook’s claim that it neither conducts business nor collects personal information in Australia as “divorced from reality” in a withering judgment that approved a lawsuit over the Cambridge Analytica scandal, reports AFR’s Michael Pelly.
Facebook, now known as Meta, was trying to block a lawsuit by the Australian Information Commissioner claiming it breached the privacy of more than 300,000 Australian users via a personality test app called This is Your Digital Life.
Justice Nye Perram said the installation, operation and removal of cookies – text files used to identify computer users – on the devices of Australian users indicated Facebook was “carrying on its worldwide business of data processing in this country”.
Spotify accused of ‘censoring by stealth’ in Joe Rogan row
Spotify has come under fire for discreetly removing more than 113 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience while publicly defending the outspoken broadcaster’s right to free speech, reports SMH’s David Millward.
The filleting of his content was spotted on social media, reigniting the controversy triggered by the decision of Neil Young and Joni Mitchell to remove their music from the platform in protest at a Joe Rogan Podcast which they said featured COVID-19 misinformation.
Spotify’s chief executive, Daniel Ek, last week stood by Rogan, who attracts 11 million listeners per episode.
Addressing Spotify staff at a company town hall, Mr Ek said: “We’re not in the business of dictating the discourse that these creators want to have on their shows.”
Behind the scenes, however, the company has taken down scores of episodes, according to the website JREMissing, a decision that prompted accusations that the platform was imposing censorship by stealth.
Joe Rogan offered $100M to quit Spotify for right-wing platform
Joe Rogan, it seems, has options. The controversial podcaster was offered $100 million on Monday to quit Spotify and join a right-wing platform, reports The Hollywood Reporter’s James Hibberd.
Chris Pavlovski, the CEO of the Canadian video sharing platform Rumble, tried to entice Rogan to jump ship in a letter posted to the company’s Twitter account Monday.
“How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both new and old, with no censorship, for $100 million bucks over four years?” he wrote. “This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit … We stand with you, your guests and your legion of fans in desire for real conversation.”
Rumble was launched in 2013 and is billed as an alternative to YouTube and “big tech.” It counts among its personalities Dan Bongino, Dinesh D’Souza, and Steve Bannon. Last month, Rumble made headlines by striking a deal with Truth Social, the social media app being launched by former President Donald Trump.
Television
The end is nigh, but Neighbours still has friends – and reason to hope
Neighbours cast and crew realised their show was vulnerable when Channel 5 would commit only to a 12-month contract extension last year. But they were left reeling on the weekend when they got news of the British broadcaster’s decision to can the long-running soapie – not from production company Fremantle Media, but via UK media, reports SMH’s Karl Quinn and Carolyn Webb.
“I got a message on Sunday afternoon saying, ‘isn’t it terrible’,” a writer on the show, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said on Monday. “But I’d heard nothing, and nor had any of the people I work with.”
Production on the show, which is now in its 37th year, resumes on Tuesday and is set to continue until June 10. That will allow time, said a Fremantle spokesperson, “to craft a spectacular finale”.
The end of Neighbours? The numbers don’t (quite) add up
Looking at the headlines around the decision by the UK’s Channel 5 to axe the long-running Australian soap Neighbours, you could be forgiven for thinking the show had committed the ultimate television sin and lost its audience. The show’s audience figures in the UK, however, tell a different story, reports SMH’s Michael Idato.
The UK’s big three – Coronation Street, with around 5.5 million viewers, Emmerdale with around 4.8 million viewers and EastEnders with around 3 million viewers – hold an unchallenged lead in a market where the soap opera genre does not just survive, but continues to flourish.
Among the remainder of the pack, however, Neighbours holds a comfortable lead with almost 1 million viewers, ahead of the UK-made Hollyoaks (around 600,000 viewers) and Home and Away (around 400,000 viewers). On those numbers, Neighbours is still the UK’s fourth most popular soap.
To Neighbours, with love
In the words of Lulu, how do you thank someone who has taken you from crayons to perfume? It’s a question millions are wrestling with amid the pop culture-changing news a British broadcaster is ending its run of Neighbours, reports SMH’s Kate Halfpenny.
Even if you haven’t watched the uber soap for years, its effect on our cultural consciousness is as indelibly Australian as Sunnyboy stains on a white Bonds singlet. Tons of us grew up with Neighbours, a staple since 1985 for global audiences hooked on the lives and loves of the moveable feast Ramsay Street residents.
Rock up to any pub trivia night and you’re likely to get a Neighbours question. Name of the famous dog? Who fell off a ladder and lost her memory? Who was shocked when he saw an e-fit of a criminal who looked like him?
The real life Ramsay St: We won’t miss Neighbours
The real life residents of Erinsborough say they’ll be thrilled to get their street back if the popular soap Neighbours is evicted from the hood, reports News Corp’s Nui Te Koha and Lisa Woolford.
The Network 10 show, which films in Pin Oak Court, in Vermont South, and a studio set in Nunawading, is under threat after British broadcaster Channel 5 pulled its support and funding from the long-running program.
Fremantle, the production company which makes the show, is scrambling to find a new partner to save Neighbours from possible axing.
But some residents in Pin Oak Court say a potential Neighbours nixing might mean a return to normal life without tourists, stickybeaks, blocked roads and randoms looking for Kylie Minogue, Margot Robbie, and Olympia Valance.
Sophie Cachia’s Survivor survival left her with target on her back
Influencer and businesswoman Sophie Cachia says even she was impressed after falling victim to an “epic blindside” on Survivor, reports News Corp’s Jackie Epstein.
She was voted off at the end of the episode but in a plot twist remains in the game and has joined the other tribe.
“As a Survivor fan I can fully appreciate it and my face almost smiled,’’ she said.
“It was an epic blindside. It was equally exciting and petrifying. The unfortunate thing for my tribe and the beautiful thing for me is I got a second chance.”
60 Minutes interview with Cleo Smith’s parents struggles in ratings
Nine Entertainment’s multi-million-dollar deal to secure a world-first interview with the parents of abducted toddler Cleo Smith failed to pay off for the network after drawing just 750,000 across the major capitals on Sunday night, reports News Corp’s Sophie Elsworth.
The media company paid more than $2 million for exclusive rights to a sit-down interview with Cleo’s mother, Ellie Smith, 24, and her stepfather, Jake Gliddon, on 60 Minutes but Cleo was largely vacant from the program.
The interview – in the 8.40pm timeslot – was heavily promoted by Nine across all its channels including print, radio and TV ahead of its airing, but one senior TV executive described the highly-anticipated program’s ratings as “disappointing” for Nine.
“Given the noise and hype surrounding Nine’s exclusive – and very expensive – deal for Cleo Smith content, this is an underwhelming response from viewers,” the executive said.